Our tour through the Ischigualasto Provincial Park started on a dusty car park near the entrance gate. I had pulled Berta to the side to allow smaller cars to line up ahead of us for the convoy to start at midday. Stop! Did I just write ‘convoy’? Let me back-pedal a little with some general information.

Located east of Ruta Nacional 40 and west of the city of La Rioja in Argentina, are two significant parks which are recognised by UNESCO as World Heritage sites. These listings are in part to preserve the outstanding landscape features, but predominantly to protect fossil sites within the parks; remains of significant dinosaur populations have been discovered in both.

Ischigualasto: our convoy driving towards the red cliffs

When we came into the region we were seriously strapped for cash – we had something like 700 Pesos between us ~ under $70! It’s a long story, but basically we were having problems accessing cash from ATMs, and many places in Argentina, particularly outside major cities, don’t accept credit card, including these two parks.

From internet research we found that the Talampaya National Park was simply out of our budget, but that we could stretch our Pesos for a visit to the Ischigualasto Provincial Park. [More information at the bottom!]

We can only speculate why neither park permits individual visits and insists on guided tours. It might have to do with the fragile environment, or it could be that some visitors have completely disrespected park rules, but most likely this regulation is in place to protect future scientific research at possible dinosaur locations, to secure undisturbed excavation sites. From friends we have heard that other parks in Argentina enforce similar rules – not our perfect idea for visiting and exploring a national park!

Ischigualasto: aerial photo showing the circuit in front of the overlook

So finally, there we were, lining up for a ranger guided tour through the Ischigualasto Provincial Park. The convoy consisted of 5 small cars and our camper, with the ranger occupying a seat in the leading vehicle. I had opted to be at the end of the line because our truck creates a lot more dust than other vehicles, but one Argentinean couple, travelling in a small Renault Kangoo camper conversion, always managed to fall in behind us…

The drive was mostly quite slow, with stops where the ranger took his time explaining things and answering questions. We were rather lucky in two ways: our particular ranger talked relatively slowly and clearly so that, even with our very limited Spanish, we both understood a fair bit of what he said. Whilst waiting to start the tour, we had chatted with an Argentinean on the parking lot who spoke good English and was part of our tour. He also helped us out with English translations when he could.

There are 5 stops along the drive:

Ischigualasto: El Gusano (the worm)

1. El Gusano [The Worm]– here we saw typical layered rock structures, where the ranger explained a little about the geological formation of the landscape, and finally pointed out a small fossil imprint of a fern leaf.

Ischigualasto: the Valle Pintado (Painted Valley) shows clearly the different geological layers in the park

2. Valle Pintado [Painted Valley] – an overlook which presents the variously coloured sediment layers of the park very well. The ranger explained the time periods when each layer was deposited and told us that the greyish layer yielded the most significant dinosaur finds.

Ischigualasto: Cancha de bochas (ball court). These balls were formed by erosion!

3. Cancha de Bocha [Ball Court] – first we saw one of the more impressive stone structures, fittingly named the “Sphinx”. Behind it a path leads to the actual Cancha de Bocha, where many round balls of different sizes lay in the sand. It was interesting to learn that these balls were shaped solely by erosion, both through water and wind. For that they appear to be almost perfectly round…

Ischigualasto: the submarine with red cliffs in the background

4. Submarino [Submarine] – this large rock structure reminded us a little of similar towers in the Bryce Canyon in Utah/USA. It was also created by wind erosion, wearing down the layers of rock and mud which are all of different hardness.

Ischigualasto: El Hongo (the mushroom) in front of the amazing tall red cliffs

5. El Hongo [The Mushroom] – we drove on and on, slowly coming closer and closer to the magnificent red cliffs we had been able to see the whole way in the distance. The last stop is at a single towering rock – the Mushroom. We didn’t find it overly impressive, but were totally awed by the cliffs. Since leaving the USA we hadn’t seen anything similar!

Ischigualasto: some of the red cliff faces reminded us of Arizona or Utah

From this final stop, everybody is allowed to drive at their own pace back to the ranger station, although you’re not allowed to leave the path. So we took our time and enjoyed the scenery at our usual slow pace. When we arrived, after spending almost 3 hours for the entire trip, some fellow convoy participants were just emerging from the restaurant…

We are glad that we visited this park; our initial reservations about travelling in a convoy were unfounded as our particular group was quite small, and the people were very nice and relaxed.

Ischigualasto: the park is an important site for dinosaur research. The onsite exhibit shows a reconstruction of dinosaur skeletons; the originals are kept in a museum in San Juan.

Ischigualasto: first ranger talk at El Gusano (the worm)

Ischigualasto, at El Gusano: fossil imprints under rock shelf

Ischigualasto: layered rock structure near Valle Pintado

Ischigualasto: the ‘Sphinx’, also caused by erosion

Ischigualasto: strangely shaped rocks formed by erosion

Ischigualasto: this looks almost like a dinosaur shaped by erosion

Ischigualasto: at the edge of the park are more impressive table mountains (mesas)

Ischigualasto: I like how the small hills in the foreground mirror the shape of the towering mountain range in the back – as if to say: one day you’ll be eroded down to our size.

The Dinosaur skeletons and other fossils from Ischigualasto Provincial Park are at the historical museum of the University in San Juan; unfortunately this museum seems to have been closed for many years.

Ischigualasto Provincial Park is also called “Valle de la Luna” [Moon Valley], this being one out of three in South America. We have visited “Valle de la Luna” near San Pedro de Atacama in Chile before, the third is in Bolivia (a future destination of dare2go). To me the one in Chile looks more moon-like because there the high salt content in the ground prevents any vegetation from growing.

Best time to visit: the ranger pointed out that during summer the daytime temperatures can be as high as mid forties Centigrade (~above 110º F). We visited in early June; at that time of the year daytime temperatures are cool to pleasant with sunny days, but nights are often below freezing. In late spring, after Andean snow melt, many access roads might be impassable due to flooding. December to March is the rain season in the north of Argentina. This leaves Southern hemisphere autumn to early winter as the best time to visit.
As the stunning red cliffs face west to south-west a visit in the afternoon will give you better light to photograph them (and at the same time probably higher temperatures).

Entrance fee was 160 Pesos per person (in June 2015), the described guided tour included.
Bonus: the ranger station offers free but slow-ish WiFi.

Two times ‘Valle de la Luna’, once in Chile, once in Argentina

The Talampaya National Park seems to be very near when you look at a map, but it’s roughly 100 kilometres by road one way from one entrance to the next. Tours there are much more pricey, starting at 335 Pesos (June 2015) per Person – all tours seem to be run by private concessionaires. Our French friends went despite this, and all they were allowed to do, for their 120 Pesos basic entrance fee, was to drive in company of a ranger to the entrance of the canyon, get out of their vehicle and take some photos – no excursion into the canyon, no unsupervised walks!
There are camping facilities in the Talampaya National Park, none in the Ischigualasto Provincial Park. We stayed overnight behind the tourist information in Los Baldecitos.

10 Responses

I knew you’d mentioned Valle de la Luna before! It was just a different country! What fascinating rock formations, particularly the field of stone balls. I like how they’re protecting this place from too many visitors.

We thought so too – we were really reminded of Arizona and particularly Utah! But the round balls are quite unique. Unfortunately we didn’t completely understand how they were formed since the description was in Spanish. Also, doing some internet research, we discovered that no one is really sure how they were formed. One of the many mysteries of our home planet…

There is certainly a variety of landscape in Ischigualasto Provincial Park, all stunning. The round balls are unusual, the red rocks beautiful. It all looks quite rugged and desolate. I imagine limiting the access to guided tours preserves that.

I think you’re right, Donna. They want the World Heritage listing to remain, and it is an important area for fossils and other paleontological discoveries, so they don’t want it overrun with visitors going where they feel like. It is not allowed to leave the driving track, even when you take the return trip back to the entrance.

It was certainly worth the pesos, and we did manage to get an ATM to work for us when we got to the next major city. We are not sure if we missed anything by not going to the other park, but we are certainly happy to have been through this one.

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Meet Yasha and Juergen. Our travel blog is atypical because we travel differently, not flying from one dream destination to the next. Our choice instead: to take it slowly, take side roads, discover places aside from the typical "bucket list" and guidebook highlights. We drive and live in our self-built overland camper, called "Berta". You can read more on our "About Us" page.

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